By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
There is a saying that “if no one else will do it, you gotta do yourself…” Communities of color and other underrepresented communities are finding that maybe doing it themselves might be the answer as organizations like the African American Health Board (AAHB) is spearheading a creative way to help inform, educate and heal the Black community and communities of color.
AAHB, in collaboration with number of community partners, will host What The World Needs Now: A Dreamathon campaign. The event, which will kickoff on October 23, is a week-long event designed to enhance the efforts of the community to deal and heal with the next waves of COVID outbreaks. According to organizers, the goal is to engage the community in meaningful and creative ways to prepare for COVID outbreaks, protect the health and well-being of the community, educate the community against misinformation and provide diverse ways of coping and healing from the devastation COVID has inflicted on communities of color.
“Health is so personal,” says Davida Ingram, curator for the What the World Needs Now Dreamathon and Public Engagement Programs Manager at Seattle Public Library. “People need space to understand their own needs and those of the communities and neighbors
“We catch COVID in our social spaces if we don’t have the tools to stop this stubborn virus,” continued Ingram. “Work, home, grocery stores, bus stops, restaurants, clinics, wherever we mix and mingle we will be breathing. So COVID shows us we have lot more in common than not. We may not always agree on next steps and that is why conveners, storytellers, caregivers, community organizers have been essential to responding. We do have to work side by side to create solutions.”
Tapping into the minds and hearts of communities hit the hardest by the pandemic gives us an intimate look at how we collectively should address the ongoing threat of the virus and its variants. By utilizing positive traits, dreams and ideas, organizers hope the Dreamathon can communicate these solutions to the community.
“Our communities know what we need. We’ve always known.” said Denisse Guerrero, Field Organizer at Washington Community Alliance. “Starting with joy and gratitude, we’re using fun as a way to share and amplify our own solutions. We’re grounding ourselves in our collective brilliance and our ability to keep us well.”
“Right now, with the rise of the Delta variant, one of the most practical things we can do is to dream,” says Ingram. “What the World Needs Now is for communities who have been hit hardest by COVID to have warmth and connection, and space to share a proactive vision.”
According to Toka Valu, Director of Communications and Art Development for the Pacific Islander Community Association (PICA) the Pacific Islander’s voices and concerns as a community are rarely heard. But the culture has lots to offer in the form of traditional remedies, and art and crafts that can help to take your mind off the negativity out there. Valu says that the Pacific Islander community is more than willing to engage in, teach and contribute to overall well-being of the entire community.
Atelete Makasini, a 19-year-old youth organizer in the Pacific Islander Community, agrees and believes that Pacific Islanders possess a multitude of talents and solutions that can help in the fight against COVID, particularly for the younger generation.
“Representing the younger generations, we are coming together virtually, offering safe spaces for young people to come and express themselves in a safe environment,” says Makasini. “We are doing outreach and education sharing knowledge and referrals on vaccinations, testing and COVID prevention strategies.”
Ingram says that the response to COVID is something that needs to be inclusive of all communities and the Dreamathon is one of the tools that she hopes will get everyone on the same page.
“This is a coalition-based project, and the vision includes Black-led public health for sure along with cross cultural work,” says Ingram.
“On my end, I began The Library 2021 public health series with the goal of centering community leadership in COVID response,” she continued. “The culminating program concept was originally taking the framework of a Hackathon and expanding it so that solution making and responding to pandemic dreams and wishes is absolutely relevant to children, teens, young adults, families, elders, workers, students–everyone on the frontlines so, that is what we did.”
Through the sharing of knowledge and wisdom the Dreamathon hopes the outcome promotes unity within the community to help overcome the disproportionality of response and resources communities of color are facing due to the pandemic.
“We hope the Dreamathon brings communities of color together to celebrate community knowledge and wisdom, to learn from one another, and to bring forward the best of what’s working to inform ways our systems can do a better job of partnering with us,” says Candace Jackson, President of AAHB. “There’s a different experience that people of color have navigating the world every single day. So, it was important for us to create this space where we can dream, together. This is a very important aspect of fostering healing in our community by sparking joy.”
Working towards more diverse and different means of communicating what is needed to combat any future outbreaks of variants AAHB wants to work with and inform local government and health officials to find better and creative ways of meeting the needs of people of color to be more prepared for COVID in the future.
“First, we honor and celebrate the people in government who, within the context of a racist, patriarchal system, are still able to make a way for resourced partnerships with communities,” said Jackson. “Rather than more being done, we are hoping for different—different paths for capacity building, different budget processes, different ways of communicating, different ways of listening, different roles and responsibilities.
“As we’re dreaming in community of color, we encourage the folks working in government to dream again as well,” Jackson adds. “We need radically different systems that are designed to center our wellbeing. We believe we need healthcare systems led, designed and cared for by us to really overcome health inequities. But until then, we firmly believe that we need our systems already in place to work and be held accountable for our healthcare disparities and outcomes.”
For more information on the event, visit https://aahbwa.org/what-the-world-needs-now.
